Collaborative Research Fields

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Structuring the research and third-party funds at the Faculty of Architecture

Following the Bologna process, Europe's teaching and research landscapes have moved closer together. With the introduction of the Bachelor - Master system, there has also been a significant increase of competition between universities and technical colleges in the area of tertiary education. However, research and scientific work, demonstrated amongst others by the right to award doctorates, are the privileges that have remained the universities. This situation resulted in the task to sharpen the academic profile of the Faculty in order to be optimally positioned to compete with other vocational institutions.

Of course, this development is a very special challenge for a faculty like a faculty of architecture, which is multidisciplinary, with departments whose topics span from ‘visual arts’ and architectural design to building history, the theory of architecture and to urban design and landscape planning to building technology and to the constructive subjects structures and structural design.

The core of the structuring concept is formed by the so-called ‚Collaborative Research Fields‘. These are areas in which inter faculty as well as cross faculty interdisciplinary research activities with related contents are combined. They cover five interdisciplinary core areas, namely:

Reuse and Redevelopment

Cultural Heritage

Infrastructure, Production and Process

Material, Structure and Function

Context and Form

The Collaborative Research Fields represent ‚vessels‘ for research activities at the Faculty of Architecture and, at the same time, build a ‘bridge’ to the so-called ‘profile fields’, i.e. interdisciplinary research fields assigned to the RWTH level in the wake of the Excellence Initiative:

Mobility and Transport Engineering

Production Engineering

and

Material Science and Engineering

The five collaborative research fields are provided with professors and junior professors with related subjects and the following dedications:

Reuse in Architecture

Conservation of Cultural Heritage

Architecture for Production and Infrastructure

Customized Building Production

Tool - Culture

Thus, the Collaborative Research Fields not only cause a focusing of internal faculty research, but also open up new teaching areas, from which new degree programs can be developed.